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AN  ADDRESS 


ALUMNI  OF  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE, 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  COLLEGE  CHAPEL, 
MARCH  16,  1844. 


BY 


N.  F.  MOORE,  LL.D. 


N  E  W  -  Y  O  R  K : 

PRINTED  FOR  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY. 
18  4  8. 


CoLTJMBfA  College,  March  16th,  1848. 
Sir:  — 

The  Address  which  I  now  lay  before  you,  in  a 
printed  form,  was  delivered  four  years  ago  in  our  Col- 
lege Chapel,  before  a  small  number,  chiefly  of  my  own 
family  and  friends,  who  were  not  to  be  deterred  by  bad 
weather  from  favoring  me  with  their  countenance  on 
that  occasion. 

A  very  unpropitious  evening,  as  also,  I  fear,  the  little 
interest  taken  in  my  subject,  caused  me  to  fail,  in  great 
measure,  of  the  audience  I  had  counted  on,  and  wholly 
of  the  object  which  I  had  in  view.  But,  thinking,  as  I  do, 
that  object — the  improvement  of  our  College  Library — 
to  be  one  of  great  importance,  I  have  felt  unwilling  any 
longer  to  rest  as  in  the  belief  that  my  fellow-alumni 
will  do  nothing  in  a  case  where  they  might  so  easily  do 
much  for  the  advantage,  present  and  future,  of  our  com- 
mon Alma-Mater. 

It  were  easy  for  me  to  point  out,  from  among  my 
former  pupils  here,  alumni  of  the  College,  who,  without 
painful  sacrifice,  could  make  its  Library  all  that  its 
warmest  friends  would  wish  to  see  it.  But,  not  to  speak 
just  now  of  any  such  munificence,  I  confine  myself,  at 
present,  to  asking  of  you,  Sir,  and  each  alumnus  of  the 


College,  some  small  contribution  to  her  Library ;  if  ft  be 
of  a  single  volume  only,  or  a  bundle  of  pamphlets;  yet 
something,  in  token  of  kindly  feeling  towards  a  place 
where  you,  in  youth,  received  a  valuable  portion  of 
your  mental  training ;  and,  further,  that  you  will,  at 
your  convenience,  pay  the  College  a  visit,  and  see  in  its 
present  state  that  department  of  it,  in  which,  especially, 
I  would  have  you  take  an  interest.  You  will  find  the 
Librarian  or  hrs  assistant  very  happy  to  wait  upon  you  ; 
or,  in  their  absence,  myself. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

NATH'L  F.  MOORE. 

P.  S.  If  you,  or  any  of  your  friends,  should  have 
books  or  pamphlets  for  the  Library,  and  will  obligingly 
intimate  the  fact  to  me  through  Boyd's  Express  Post, 
they  shall  be  seiU  for.  N.  F.  M. 


ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen,  my  Fellow-Alumni  : — 

I  have  invited  your  attendance  here  this 
evening,  with  a  view  to  lay  before  you,  and 
to  ask.  your  aid  in  carrying  out  a  plan  which 
has  been  thought  of  for  improving  in  an  es- 
sential point  the  condition  of  our  common 
Alma-Mater. 

Although  her  library  has,  within  the  last 
few  years,  received  valuable  additions,  and 
been  rendered  somewhat  more  accessible  than 
formerly,  yet  is  it  still  very  far  from  being  what 
she  would  desire  to  have  it;  or  such  as  we 
may  hope  to  see  it  become,  if  her  alumni  can 
be  persuaded  to  take  the  interest  in  it,  which, 
in  that  character,  they  ought  to  feel. 

And  do  not,  I  entreat  you,  close  your  ears 
against  me,  here  at  the  very  outset,  from  ap- 
prehension that  I  am  about  to  importune  you 
with  appeals  to  your  liberality.     I   certainly 


6 

shall  be  glad,  whenever  the  occasion  arrives, 
to  see  that  manifested  in  a  manner  worthy  both 
of  you  and  of  its  object ;  but  all  I  ask  at 
present  is  your  kind  attention  for  a  while.  I 
desire,  in  the  first  place,  to  convince  you  that 
not  our  college  only  but  this  great  city,  and 
our  country  at  large  are  lamentably  unprovided 
with  those  means  of  instruction  and  sources 
of  rational  enjoyment  which,  in  their  ample 
and  well  ordered  libraries,  almost  every  civil- 
ized people  but  ourselves  can  boast. 

No  one  will  make  endeavors  to  supply  a 
want  of  which  he  is  unconscious ;  but,  to  be 
rendered  sensible  how  very  destitute  we  are 
of  books,  or,  at  least,  of  any  collection  that 
may  merit  to  be  called  a  library,  we  need  only 
to  compare  the  state,  in  this  respect,  of  other 
civilized  communities,,  whether  ancient  or 
modern,  with  our  own. 

What  the  printing  press  has  now  rendered 
comparatively  easy,  was  in  earlier  ages  so  dif- 
ficult that  none  but  princes — a  Rhamses,  a 
Pisistratus,  a  Ptolemy,  an  Eumenes — or  else 
such  private  individuals  as,  for  power  and 
wealth,  might  rival  with  princes,  could  found 


and  build  up  libraries ;  nevertheless  we  read 
of  such  in  those  ancient  times,  as  far  surpassed 
in  their  extent,  even  all  that  these  United 
States  are  able  to  show,  not  to  say  any  that 
this  city  owns.  For  I  acknowledge  with 
shame,  that  in  our  poorly  furnished  country, 
this  our  own  city,  great  as  its  population  its 
prosperity  and  its  resources  are,  does  not  rank 
even  second  as  regards  its  literary  wealth. 

The  earliest  library  of  which  we  find  in 
history  any  mention,  was  that  of  Osymandyas, 
as  he  is  styled  by  Diodorus  Siculus,  or,  as 
recent  historians  have  styled  him,  Rhamses  the 
Great,  who  reigned  in  Thebes  above  three 
thousand  years  ago,  and  of  whose  palace  the 
remains,  though  less  stupendous  than  some 
other  ruins  within  the  vast  circuit  which  his 
capital  once  occupied,  are  nevertheless  still 
gazed  upon  with  admiration,  and  sufficiently 
attest  the  greatness  of  this  victorious  monarch's 
power.  We  see  remaining  even  to  this  day 
the  entrance  to  that  very  library  which  the 
Greek  historian  describes,  and  we  see  it 
adorned  with  emblems  so  significant  of  its 
destination  that  we  cannot  hesitate  as  to  what 


8 

that  may  have  been.  Upon  tlie  left  hand 
stands  the  God  of  Sciences  and  Arts,  the  In- 
ventor of  Letters,  Thoth ;  and  on  the  other 
side  his  companion,  Saf,  Lady  of  Letters, 
Presiding  Divinity  of  the  Hall  of  Books,  as 
she  is  there  most  significantly  styled.  The 
God  is  accompanied  by  a  figure  emblematic 
of  the  sense  of  Sight,  and  the  Goddess  by 
another,  which  personifies  the  Hearing,  and 
is  provided  moreover  with  all  the  implements 
of  writing,  by  means  of  which  what  is  de- 
livered to  the  ear  may  be  preserved  from 
oblivion  and  loss.  But  over  the  entrance  to 
this  "sacred  library,"  as  Diodorus  terms  it, 
we  no  longer  find  the  remarkable  inscrip- 
tion which  he  mentions — ipv/fii  larQtlov — 
an  inscription  that  deserves  notice,  as  furnish- 
ing; a  true  and  philosophical  designation  of  a 
repository  of  good  books.* 

In  this  library  of  Rhamses  were  treasured, 
it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  all  the  various 
monuments   and    written    evidences   of    that 

*  This  inscription,  which  has  been  mistranslated  medicine  of 
the  soul,  signifies  more  properly  i/c?  soul's  healing-placs — a  place 
vherein  the  snul  is  r^'Slnrefl  to  henVh. 


9 


wisdom  for  which  Egypt  was  anciently  re- 
nowned— the  wisdom  in  which  Moses,  we  are 
told,  was  learned — and  which  afterwards,  Py- 
thagoras, Thales,  Plato,  and  other  Grecian 
sages  resorted  thither  to  seek. 

A  circumstance  which,  even  at  the  early 
period  when  Rhamses  reigned,  may  have  fa- 
cilitated— ^as  in  a  much  later  age  it  did — the 
formation  of  a  library  in  Egypt,  was  that 
country's  possessing,  in  papyrus,  the  most 
convenient  material  for  books.  This  greatly 
aided  the  first  three  Ptolemies  in  the  execu- 
tion of  their  munificent  design — the  establish- 
ment of  that  famous  Alexandrean  library. 
And  it  was  iheir  prohibiting  the  exportation 
of  papyrus  in  order  to  prevent  the  kings  of 
Pergamus  from  rivaling  them  in  their  patron- 
age of  letters,  that  caused  such  improvements 
to  be  made  at  Pergamus  in  the  manufacture  of 
the  other,  at  that  time,  chief  material  of  books, 
as  that  it  thence  derived  its  name ;  being  called, 
because  made  at  Pergamus  better  or  in  greater 
quantity  than  elsewhere,  carta  pergamena^ 
parchment. 

The  library  which  the  kings  of  Pergamus, 
1* 


10 

in  spite  of  the  jealous  prohibition  of  the  Ptol- 
emies, succeeded  in  forming,  was  afterwards,  to 
the  number  of  200,000  volumes,  bestowed  by 
Mark  Anthony  on  Cleopatra,  and  so,  by  a 
strange  destiny,  became  incorporated  with 
that  portion  of  the  great  Alexandrean  collec- 
tion which  had  escaped  the  conflagration  by 
which  it  suflered  in  Julius  Caesar's  time. 

At  Athens  Pisistratus  was  the  first  of  whom 
we  hear  as  having  applied  himself  to  collect  a 
library ;  and,  at  a  later  period,  Aristotle  was, 
among  private  individuals,  distinguished  in 
like  manner.  After  the  fall  of  Greece,  and 
in  proportion  as  she  in  turn  "  subdued  her 
barbarous  conqueror,"  did  noble  Romans  show 
their  love  for  letters  and  extend  to  them  a 
liberal  encouragement,  by  forming  libraries 
which  were  freely  opened  to  their  countrymen. 
Paulus  -3^milius,  Sylla,  Crassus,  and  Luculhis 
were  the  first  to  enrich  Rome  with  books 
among  other  Eastern  spoils^  and  the  valuable 
library  of  this  last  named — Lucullus — though 
not  regarded  as  a  public  one,  was,  neverthe- 
less, together  with  its  walks  and  spacious  halls, 
generously  thrown  open  to  his  friends,  and  to 


u 

all  learned  Greeks  who  visited  Rome  ;  and 
who  were  there  received,  sajs  Plutarch,  as  in 
a  guest-house  of  the  Muses ;  gladly  betaking 
themselves  thither  from  the  occupations  of  the 
world  ;  and  often  joined  there  in  their  walks 
and  conversations  by  Lucullus  himself,  their 
princely  entertainer. 

Cicero,  as  he  himself  informs  us,  often, 
when  residing  at  his  Tusculan  villa,  which 
was  near  that  of  Lucullus,  had  recourse  to 
this  library  even  after  its  founder  was  no 
more;  and  in  his  third  hook  De  Finibus  he 
gives  a  pleasing  picture  of  his  accidental  meet- 
ing there  with  Cato,'  who  was  guardian  of  the 
young  Lucullus,  and  whom  he  finds  seated 
amidst  a  pile  of  books,  the  writings  of  his  fa- 
vorite authors  of  the  Stoic  school. 

In  the  beginning  of  Augustus'  reign  Asi- 
nius  Pollio  first  established — that  also  from  the 
spoils  of  war — a  public  library  in  the  city  of 
Rome.  For  the  library  which  Julius  Caesar 
had  previously  formed,  and  with  the  arrange- 
ment and  the  care  of  which  he  charged  his 
late  unequal  antagonist  in  arms,  Varro,  "  the 
most  learned  of  the  Romans,"  does  not  appear 


12 

to  have  been  public.  Of  the  Emperars,  Au- 
gustus, Tiberius,  and  Trajan  were  among  the 
most  remarkable  for  the  pains  the_y  took  in 
founding  and  extending  jDubHc  libraries  ;  of 
which  there  were  at  one  period,  we  are  told, 
no  less  than  eight  and  twenty  in  the  city  of 
Rome.  But  all  these,  of  course,  and  probably 
most  other  collections  every  where,  like  that 
of  Alexandrea,  must  have  perished  in  the  long 
and  violent  convulsions  which  attended  the 
decline  and  downfall  of  the  Roman  power, 
and  during  which  there  was  scarce  any  portion 
of  the  empire  that  escaped  the  fate  of  being 
in  its  turn  laid  waste ;  and  we  are  indebted, 
no  doubt,  to  religious  houses  alone  for  the 
preservation  of  even  that  small  portion  of 
books  that  has  survived  to  us  from  ancient 
times — not  that  any  particular  care  was  always 
taken  in  such  houses  to  preserve  them  ;  but  in 
many  instances  they  owed  their  safety  to  their 
having  been  forgotten  where  they  had  been 
thrown  aside,  and  lay  mouldering,  perhaps,  in 
some  neglected  corner,  half  buried  under  dust. 
It  may  be  doubted,  however,  if  any  portion  of 
the   history,  philosophy,  eloquence,  or  poetry 


1  <^ 

of  the  ancients  would,  but  for  such  asjiums, 
have  reached  our  day  across  the  dark  and  agi- 
tated gulf  of  ages  in  which  by  far  the  greater 
part  was  lost  previous  to  the  discovery  of  the 
art  of  printing. 

In  times  comparatively  modern  have  been 
formed,  in  all  civilized  countries,  libraries  more 
or  less  extensive  ;  which,  in  many  instances, 
consist  in  part,  at  least,  of  manuscripts, — 
become  since  the  invention  of  printing  even 
more  precious  than  before, — but  chiefly  of 
printed  books. 

In  Italy  the  libraries  of  Rome,  of  Florence, 
and  of  Ferrara,  were  among  the  earliest  of 
note.  That  of  the  Vatican,  begun  by  Nicho- 
las V,  about  the  year  1450,  has  acquired  great 
celebrity.  All  that  its  founder,  though  a 
zealous  patron  of  letters,  accomplished  during 
the  eight  years  of  his  pontificate,  was  the  col- 
lection of  about  five  thousand  volumes.  Many 
of  his  successors  have  contributed  towards  the 
making  it  what  it  now  is,  but  the  magnifi- 
cent repository  in  which  it  is  contained  was 
the  work  of  Sixtus  V. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Nicholas  V,  Mat- 


14 

thias  Corvinus,  king  of  Hungary,  began  the 
formation  at  Buda  of  a  library  which,  during 
the  subsequent  thirty-two  years  of  his  reign, 
was  through  his  exertions  increased  to  such 
an  extent  and  value,  that,  it  is  thought,  no 
heavier  loss  was  ever  sustained  by  science 
and  letters— no,  not  even  by  the  Saracens' 
burning  of  the  Alexandrean  library — if  that 
ever  occurred — than  when  in  1527  Buda,  with 
all  its  literary  and  artistic  treasures,  became 
the  prey  of  the  Turks. 

The  Laurentian  library,  which  still  con-' 
sists  wholly  of  manuscripts — founded  by 
Cosmo,  and  enlarged  by  his  son,  Pietro  de 
Medici — owes,  however,  its  name,  as  well  as 
its  largest  increase,  to  Lorenzo  the  Magnifi- 
cent, who  bestowed  so  wisely  in  accumulating 
these  richer  treasures  of  genius  and  the  mind, 
that  princely  wealth  which  was  derived  from 
his  extended  commerce.  After  the  fall  of  the 
Medici  in  1494,  this  library  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  a  monastery  in  Florence,  from 
which  it  was  purchased  by  Leo  X,  before  his 
accession  to  the  Papacy,  and  Clement  VII, 
another  Pontiff  of  the  same  illustrious  family. 


15 

placed  it  in  the  then  newly  erected   building 
where  it  still  remains. 

The  Ambrosian  library  of  Milan  owes  its 
formation  to  the  Cardinal  Frederico  Borromeo, 
who  during  thirty-seven  years  from  1595  was 
archbishop  of  that  city,  and,  by  means  of 
agents  sent  through  various  countries,  suc- 
ceeded in  collecting  about  ten  thousand  man-^ 
uscripts  and  very  many  printed  books.  Living 
himself  in  great  simplicity  a  very  frugal  life, 
he  devoted  the.  chief  part  of  his  large  revenues 
to  this  noble  end. 

Charles  V,  of  France,  began  the  first  royal 
library  in  that  country ;  but  this — such  as  it 
then  was  ;  not  exceeding  nine  hundred  vol- 
umes— fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Duke  o'f  Bed- 
ford, ajid  was  removed  by  him  to  England. 
The  foundation  of  the  present  Royal  Library 
of  France,  which  contains  700,000  volumes, 
including  80,000  manuscripts,  and  which, 
for  extent  and  value,  ranks  before  all  others 
in  the  world,  was  laid  by  Charles  the  Vllth. 

In  Spain  the  library  of  the  Escurial  was 
founded  by  Philip  II,  about  the  year  1580,  but 


16 

thei'e  existed  at   the   time   libraries  more  an- 
cient in  Salamanca  and  Alcala. 

In  Germany  the  libraries  of  Vienna  and 
Heidelberg,  which  were  begun  in  the  loth 
century,  ranked  for  a  long  period  much  above 
all  others.  Vienna  still  continues  to  be  re- 
markable, but  Munich  has  become  yet  more 
so  for  its  wealth  in  books.  This  city,  which 
the  reigning  king  of  Bavaria,  by  his  classic 
taste  and  his  munificent  patronage  of  art,  has 
rendered  one  of  the  most  attractive  in  the 
world,  possesses  a  library  second  in  extent 
only  to  that  of  Paris.  As  Paris  is  distin- 
guished above  all  cities  in  the  world ;  so  is 
Germany,  if  we  regard  it  as  a  whole,  above 
all  other  countries,  for  its  literary  treasures. 
An  American  traveller  in  that  country  several 
years  ago,  comparing  its  condition  in  this  re- 
spect with  that  of  the  United  States,  found 
there  thirty-one  libraries  within  a  few  days' 
journey  of  each  other,  which  contained  col- 
lectively 3,300,000  volumes,  while  the  thirty- 
one  largest  collections  in  the  United  Stales 
amounted  in  all  to  but  250,000  volumes.     The 


17 

comparison  probably,  would  be  as  little  favor- 
able to  us  at  the  present  day. 

It  may  be  objected,  and  in  many  cases 
truly,  that  these  European  libraries  have  been 
accumulated  during  a  succession  of  several 
centuries.  That  of  the  University  of  Got- 
tingen,  however,  the  best  arranged,  perhaps,  of 
any  in  the  world,  and  as  large  as  would  be  those 
of  all  the  colleges  of  the  United  States  col- 
lected into  one,  dates  from  but  nineteen  years 
before  the  foundation  of  this  our  college ;  and 
the  city  of  which  it  forms  a  chief  ornament 
contains  less  than  one  thirtieth  of  the  numbers 
of  New-York.  In  making  the  comparison, 
too,  which  has  been  suggested  between  the 
collective  number  of  books  belonsine:  to  sev- 
eral  small  libraries;  such  as  are  the  only  ones 
that  we  can  show ;  and  the  number  which 
such  a  library  as  that  of  Gottingen,  one  and 
entire  in  itself,  may  contain,  there  is  an  im- 
portant circumstance  which  must  be  kept  in 
view,  if  we  desire  to  see  the  full  extent  of 
our  deficiency.  These  several  small  libraries 
are  for  the  most  part  repetitions  of  each  other. 
In  everyone  of  then),  it  is  probable,  we  should 


18 

find  copies  of  Shakspeare  and  Milton ;  of 
Pope  and  Dryden  ;  of  Swift,  Addison,  and 
Johnson  ;  of  Hume  and  Gibbon  ;  of  Words- 
worth, Southey,  Byron,  and  Scott.  Within 
such  beaten  round  there  w'ould  be  dupHcate, 
triplicate,  quadruplicate,  and  many  more-fold 
reiterations  of  the  same  work,  according  to 
the  number  of  libraries  gathered  into  one  ; 
but  their  cumulative  value  would  not  be  pro- 
portionately increased.  It  forms  part  of  the 
system  of  every  well  managed  library,  that  is 
not  meant  chiefly  for  circulation,  to  exchange 
its  duplicates,  to  diversify  as  far  as  possible  its 
contents,  and  so  to  enlarge  its  sphere  in  the 
universe  of  books. 

In  speaking  of  foreign  libraries,  it  were 
unjust  to  omit  that  of  Leyden,  for  although  it 
does  not  reckon  above  80,000  volumes  includ- 
ing 14,000  manuscripts,  yet  is  its  value  far 
greater  than  might  seem  proportionate  to  its 
extent.  It  became,  shortly  after  its  estab- 
lishment, one  of  the  best  in  Europe,  and  its 
foundation  by  the  first  Prince  of  Orange  was 
laid  under  circumstances  which  entitle  it  to  an 
especial  notice.     With  a  view  to  recompense 


19 

the  inhabitants  of  the  city  for  their  heroic  re- 
sistance of  the  Spaniards  under  Valdez,  and 
their  sufferings  during  that  protracted  siege, 
so  miraculously  raised,  the  Prince  proposed  to 
grant  them  either  an  exemption  from  certain 
taxes,  or  an  University,  and  they  wisely  chose 
the  latter.  Leyden  became  in  consequence 
such  a  renowned  seat  of  learning  as  to  be 
styled  the  Athens  of  the  West,  and  the  names 
of  Grotius,  Descartes,  Salmasius,  Scaliger, 
Boerhaave,  and  other  great  men  bear  witness  to 
the  far-sighted  wisdom  of  the  choice  she  made. 
You  would  be  little  instructed,  and  still 
less  entertained  by  any  longer  list  of  places 
where  libraries  sufficiently  large  to  deserve 
mention  have  been  formed.  It  will  be  suffi.- 
cient,  perhaps,  to  have  stated  such  facts  as 
may  serve  to  show  how  greatly  wanting  our 
country  is  as  yet  in  this  respect.  The  best 
collections  it  can  boast — those  of  Harvard,  of 
the  Boston  Athenaeum,  of  Andover,  of  the 
Philadelphia  Library  Company,  of  Charleston, 
S.  C,  of  the  N.  Y.  Society  Library,  and 
our  Mercantile  Library — are  greatly  inferior, 
even  in  number,  and  still  more  so  in  value,  to 


20 

many  private  libraries  in  England  and  on  the 
continent  of  Europe.  The  most  extensive 
and  valuable  library  as  yet  to  be  found  on  the 
American  continent,  is  that  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
as  1  am  informed.  It  is  said  to  contain  as 
many  as  150,000  volumes,  and  is  freely  opened 
to  all  who  wish  to  use  it. 

England,  though  less  distinguished  in  this 
respect  than  several  countries  which  are  not 
to  be  compared  with  her  for  wealth,  possesses, 
nevertheless,  libraries  of  great  value  ;  as  that 
of  the  British  Museum,  and  the  Bodleian,  which 
latter  was  founded  about  the  year  1600  by  Sir 
Thomas  Bodley,  "with  a  munificence,"  says 
Hallam,  "  which  has  rendered  his  name  more 
immortal  than  the  foundation  of  a  family  could 
have  done." 

It  is  commonly  understood  that  an  emi- 
nent  and  wealthy  merchant  has  made  a  mu- 
nificent provision  for  enriching  this  his  adopted 
city  with  a  similar  foundation,  which  will 
hand  down  his  name  in  a  most  honorable  con- 
nection— as  associated  with  the  establishment 
of  a  library,  such  as  our  country  does  not 
yet    possess.     May  we  not  reasonably  hope 


21 


that  some  son  of  our  own  soil,  and  of  this  our 
Alma-Mater,  will  be  found  willing  to  do  for 
her  the  comparatively  little  that  she  asks 
towards  the  extension  and  reorganization  of  her 
library  ?  She  acknowledges  her  recent  o])li- 
gation  to  another  munificent  stranger ;  who, 
though  he  never  had  derived  instruction  from 
her — owed  her  no  filial  reverence,  nor  debt  of 
gratitude,  has,  notwithstanding,  by  his  liberal 
bequest,  enabled  her  lo  dispense  to  others 
through  all  time  to  come,  a  boon  which  he 
neither  needed  nor  received  from  her  himself. 
Cheaply,  in  comparison  with  the  price  at 
which  men  sometimes  buy  renown,  has  lie, 
by  the  endowment  of  the  Gebhard-Professor- 
ship,  secured  a  perpetual  memory  of  his  hon- 
ored name. 

How  many  and  how  great  the  dangers 
which  man  braves !  What  arduous  toils  is  he 
not  willing  to  endure,  in  his  ambitious  endeavor 
to  become  the  founder  of  a  familj' ! — through 
anxious  desire  to  perpetuate  his  name  !  Yet, 
who  is  able  to  assure  him  that  those  who  bear 
this  name  will  always  do  it  honor  ? — that  it 
shall   not,  even  within  a  generation,  be  pur- 


22 

sued,  in  the  person  of  his  descendant,  with 
curses  and  contempt  ?  How  much  mo^'e 
surely  might  he  count  upon  a  lasting,  an  ever- 
enduring  and  fair  fame,  as  founder  of  a  library 
— of  an  establishment  which  should  continue, 
to  the  latest  posterity,  a  bright  centre  of  in- 
tellectual light,  diffusing,  in  his  name,  its 
salutary  influence  long  after  all  memory  of  his 
coevals  had  become  extinct  ? 

We  might  with  greater  reason  hope  to  see 
examples,  such  as  those  just  now  alhided  to, 
followed  by  our  own  alumni,  and  some  portion 
of  the  much  that  is  required,  done  by  them  for 
our  library,  if  it  had  ever  been  for  them  a  place 
of  agreeable  resort;  furnishing  associations 
with  the  college  of  a  pleasing  kind — links 
which,  according  to  our  system,  are  too  often 
wanting.  For,  with  a  college  constituted  as  is 
ours,  such  associations  are  less  likely  to  exist, 
than  with  one  which  has  been  the  student's 
dwelling  place  and  home  during  his  college 
course.  As  regards  our  own  college,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  while  many  of  her  alumni 
are  ready  to  acknowledge  themselves  indebted 
to  her — will  admit  that  their  success  in  aft(?r 


23 

life  is  due  in  great  measure  to  the  training 
which  they  here  received — yet  do  they  re- 
member this  chiefly  as  a  place  where  they  pur- 
sued distasteful  studies,  and  recited  weary 
tasks.  Not  having  lived  within  the  college 
walls,  their  hearts  do  not  turn  back  to  it  with 
affectionate  regard,  as  the  scene  of  joys,  and 
hopes,  and  sports,  and  youthful  friendships, 
during  four  of  the  brightest  years  of  their  ex- 
istence. We  hear,  indeed,  the  name  of  Alma- 
Mater  repeated  in  Commencement  declama- 
tions with  respectful  professions  of  gratitude 
and  attachment ;  but  these  are  nothing  more 
than  cold  acknowledgments  which  reason  and 
not  feeling  dictates.  It  is  therefore,  in  our 
case,  so  especially  desirable  that  we  should 
possess,  in  a  well  furnished  and  well  ojdered 
library,  ever  open  to  our  alumni,  a  new  and 
pleasing  bond  of  union  between  us  and  them 
— a  place  to  which  they  may  at  pleasure 
resort  for  information  wanted  on  any  subject 
of  science  or  of  art — to  verify  a  citation  from 
an  ancient  author — to  ascertain  some  half  re- 
membered fact — to  resolve,  from  time  to  time, 
the  doubts  that  are  continually  arising  in  an 


24 

inquiring  mind — to  pursue,  with  the  multi- 
plied and  various  aids  which  such  a  library 
and  its  librarian  would  afford,  whatever  inves- 
tigation they  may  be  engaged  in  following  out. 

The  idea  of  a  library,  as  a  universal  teacher, 
should  comprehend  its  possession  of  a  learned 
librarian,  as  its  interpreter — its  living  index — 
the  soul  that  is  to  animate  and  give  activity 
to  what  would,  but  for  it,  be  a  comparatively 
inert  mass.  Such  a  lii)rarian  was  Varro  to 
Julius  Caesar.  Such  to  Ptolemy  Soter  was 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  the  first  superintend- 
ent of  the  Alexandrean  library.  And  his  suc- 
cessors, during  a  long  period,  in  that  charge, 
Zenodotus,  Callimachus,  Eratosthenes,  and 
Apollonius  Rhodius,  show  by  the  lustre  of  their 
names  the  high  importance  then  rightly  at- 
tached to  the  office  -which  they  held. 

It  might,  perhaps,  at  first  sight,  seem  that 
libraries  are  less  needed  in  our  day,  because 
of  the  oral  instruction  upon  all  manner  of 
subjects  now  so  freely  offered,  and  the  flood  of 
cheap  books  with  which  the  reading  world  is 
absolutely  deluged  by  the  press.  But  these 
numerous  lectures — no  new  invention  of  the 


25 

present  time,  as  some  imagine — are  far  from 
superseding  the  necessity  of  books ;  and,  as 
for  the  cheap  abundance  of  the  latter  now,  we 
have  reason  to  be  thankful  that  there  remains, 
here  and  there,  tlie  firm  ground  of  an  ancient 
library  to  save  true  learning  from  being  wholly 
swept  away  by  such  a  frothy  inundation. 

Anciently,  when  books  were  exceeding 
rare — were  regarded  as  almost  too  precious  to 
be  used — and  comparatively  few  persons  were 
able  to  read  them,  even  where  they  might  have 
been  obtained — almost  all  instruction  was  oral- 
ly delivered.  It  was  by  hearing  only  that  men 
became  acquainted  even  with  the  laws  which 
they  were  required  to  obey.  Moses,  on  de- 
livering to  the  priests  the  law,  commanded 
that  at  certain  seasons  they  should  read  it 
"  before  all  Israel,  in  their  hearing,  that  they 
might  hear  and  learn,  and  fear  the  Lord  their 
God,  and  observe  to  do  all  the  works  of  his 
law."  The  laws  {cd  QrjTQui)  of  Lycurgus 
were  not  committed  to  writing.  Those  of 
Solon  and  of  other  eminent  legislators  were, 
like  many  proverbs,  (the  brief  laws  which 
popular  experience  lays  down,)  expressed  con- 
2 


26 

cisely  in  verse,  to  the  end  that  thej  might  be 
the  more  easily  remembered.  The  m6de  in 
which  the  poet  commonly  made  known  his 
works  was  public  recitation.  The  historian 
read  his  narrative  in  the  hearing  of  an  assem- 
bled people.  The  philosopher  taught  his  dog- 
mas chiefly  by  word  of  mouth. 

A  comparative  indifference,  as  regards  oral 
teaching,  might  in  our  days  be  expected  from 
the  more  wide-spread  knowledge  of  the  art  of 
reading,  and  the  ready  access,'  now  enjoyed, 
to  books,  and  such  indifference,  if  it  in  fact 
exist,  is,  no  doubt,  owing,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  those  causes.  But  we  still  see  lectures  on 
all  sides,  attracting  crowds  of  hearers,  who 
find  therein  an  easy  method  of  acquiring  that 
general  acquaintance  with  a  subject  which 
contents  them ;  one  of  those  royal  roads  to 
knowledge  which  the  fashion  of  the  day  pre- 
fers to  follow.  If  such  lectures  are  but  rightly 
viewed,  and  made  use  of  for  the  ends  to  which 
they  are  adapted,  they  must,  by  awakening 
the  liberal  curiosity  of  those  who  hear  them, 
and  giving  expansion  to  their  views,  create  an 
additional  demand  for  libraries  and  for  books, 


27  • 

But  whether  required  or  not,  for  such  purpose 
as  this — the  gaining  something  more  than  a" 
popular  acquaintance  with  the  subject  taught 
in  lectures — a  good  library  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  a  main  foundation  and  essential  part  of  every 
seat  of  learning. 

Some  of  my  audience  may,  perhaps,  have 
heard  a  saying  of  a  learned  judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  that  he 
regarded  it  as  a  misfortune  for  a  man  who 
would  be  great  in  his  profession  to  have  free 
access  to  an  extensive  library ;  and  such,  no 
doubt,  in  certain  cases,  it  may  prove.  But 
it  may  be  said  with  equal  truth,  that  it  is 
dangerous  for  a  man  who  w6uld  enjoy  good 
health  to  be  daily  seated  at  a  well-spread 
'  board — to  have  free  access  to  a  great  abun- 
dance and  tempting  variety  of  food.  If  in 
either  case  he  want  the  moderation  rightly  to 
enjoy  the  varied  banquet  set  before  him — if  he 
indulge  himself  without  restraint — partake  of 
every  thing,  and  in  greater  quantity  than  he 
can  well  digest — he  must  undoubtedly,  whether 
in  body  or  mind,  experience  the  ill  effects  of 
such  excess. 


28 

We  should  distinguish,  as  regards  the  use 
of  books,  between  the  discipline  and  the  i7i- 
struction  of  the  mind.  To  develope  and  to 
train  its  powers,  some  single  work,  well  studied 
and  tiioroughly  digested,  may  accomplish  more 
than  the  desultory  reading  of  a  thousand  books ; 
but  to  furnish  it  with  the   knowledo^e  of  all 

a 

useful  facts — with  the  various  results  of  ob- 
servation and  experience — the  deductions  of 
science,  and  the  unnumbered  curious  discover- 
ies of  man,  in  all  the  walks  of  nature  and  of 
art — it  were  hard  to  say  how  many  volumes 
are  required.  The  books  which  a  man  habitu- 
ally reads  ought  to  be  few  and  choice — "  Non 
refert  quam  multos  sed  quam  bonos  habeas 
libros,"  saith  Seneca  ;  and  again,"  Satius  enim 
est  paucis  te  tradere  quam  errare  per  mul- 
tos." 

There  have  been  many  instances  of  self- 
taught  men,  who,  in  their  earlier  years,  were, 
from  poverty,  their  social  position,  their  seclu- 
ded situation,  or  some  other  cause,  confined 
to  some  few  volumes,  which  they  consequently 
read  and  read  again,  so  often  as  to  make  the 


2^ 

contents  part  and  parcel  of  their  minds.  And 
these  men  have,  some  of  them,  no  doubt,  been 
indebted  for  their  subsequent  distinction  to 
this  very  cause  ;  but  we  find  them,  when  en- 
joying this  distinction  at  a  later  period  of  their 
lives,  showing  such  acquaintance  with  so  many 
and  so  various  matters,  as  could  no  otherwise 
have  been  obtained  than  from  a  vast  number 
and  variety  of  books.  For  the  discipline  of 
his  mind  and  the  regulation  of  his  life  each 
individual  should  possess  at  least  a  few  volumes 
of  his  own — his  daily  companions,  monitors, 
and  friends — but  libraries  should  be  regarded 
as  a  means  chiefly  of  instruction  ;  and  because 
of  the  diversity  of  men's  pursuits,  and  the 
necessity  that  a  library  which  would  be  re- 
garded as  complete,  should  contain  all  books 
that  are  capable  of  throwing  light  on  any  part 
of  human  knowledge,  it  seems  scarcely  possible 
to  limit  its  extent.  There  are  few  books  so 
worthless  that  they  may  not,  for  some  purpose 
or  other,  furnish  something  useful.  As  the 
bee  lights  on  every  flower,  and  gathers  honey 
even  from  poisonous  plants,  so  may  the  mind 
2* 


30 

well  disciplined  by  moral  and  religious  culture, 
and  matured  by  years,  expatiate  freely  and 
unharmed  among  all  sorts  of  books,  and  de- 
rive instruction  from  them  all. 

A  well  furnished  college  library,  such  as 
we  will  not  despair  of  seeing  here,  should 
differ  from  a  private  collection  in  various  res- 
pects. There  are  many  books  which  should 
be  found  in  it  that  might  be  regarded  as  in- 
cumbrances upon  the  shelves  of  an  individual 
— works  of  very  disproportionate  bulk — the 
voluminous  transactions  of  learned  societies, 
with  other  cumbrous  books  of  reference,  rarely 
opened  perhaps ;  but  the  want  of  which,  on 
some  particular  occasions,  might  be  seriously 
felt.  And,  so  in  the  department  of  belles- 
lettres,  though  the  student  of  ancient  classic 
literature  may  perhaps  content  himself,  on  or- 
dinary occasions,  with  the  simple  text  of  Greek 
and  Latin  authors,  according  to  the  most  ap- 
proved edition  of  each ;  and  will  do  best  to 
read  them  in  this  form  ;  yet  he  should  have  it 
in  his  power  to  consult,  in  such  a  library,  the 
editions  from  which  this  text  has  been  derived, 


31 

and  which,  in  many  cases,  are  rendered  bulky 
and  expensive  by  prefaces  and  disquisitions, 
translations,  commentaries,  scholia,  various 
readings,  indices,  and  other  such  appen- 
dages. 

The  value  of  editions  of  ancient  authors, 
in  the  estimation  of  bibliographs  and  scholars, 
depends  on  a  variety  of  circumstances.  Some 
have  nothing  to  recommend  them  except  a 
rarity  which  they  owe  to  time  and  various  ac- 
cidents. Of  this  edition,  for  example,  a  few 
copies  only,  were  preserved  from  a  conflaga- 
tion — of  that,  the  greater  part  was  lost  at  sea — 
of  another,  suppressed  by  public  authority,  only 
some  rare  copies  found  their  way  abroad. 
Sometimes,  as  has  been  well  observed,  "the 
want  of  value  renders  them  scarce,  and  their 
rarity  renders  them  valuable." 

The  first  editions  frequently  possess  great 
value  in  the  eyes  of  critics,  because  derived 
by  learned  printers,  such  as  Aldus  Manutius, 
Henry  Stephens  and  his  sons,  from  manu- 
scripts which  in  many  cases  have  not  been 
preserved.      Of  other   editions,  one  will  be 


32 

prized  for  its  beauty,  another  for  its  accuracjj 
a  third  for  an  eloquent  preface  or  dedication — 
this  one  for  an  able  translation — that  for  a 
learned  commentary,  or  a  copious  and  useful 
index — and  in  some  are  found  united  several 
of  these  recommendations.  It  is  therefore  that 
a  well  furnished  library  is  expected  to  contain 
various  editions  of  the  chief  Greek  and  Latin 
authors;  and  that  some  acquaintance  with  the 
respective  merits  of  editions  is  demanded  in  a 
scholar. 

But  to  return.  Although  our  College  Li- 
brary forms  no  exception  in  the  general  picture 
of  our  country's  destitute  condition,  and  is,  of 
course,  very  far  from  being  what  its  friends 
would  wish  to  see  it,  yet,  in  comparison  with 
others  around  us,  it  is  not  without  its  worth  ; 
being,  indeed,  in  some  departments,  a  better 
one  than  any  other  that  our  city  owns,  and 
furnishing  at  least  a  good  foundation  whereon 
to  build. 

What,  and  in  what  way  its  friends  desire 
to  build  on  this  foundation,  I  will  now  ex- 
plain. 


33 

The  Trustees  of  the  College  have  lately 
given  its  library  into  the  immediate  charge  of 
a  committee  who  have  already  made  some  ar- 
rangements for  placing  it  on  a  better  footing 
than  before ;  and  mean  to  spare  no  pains  in 
their  endeavor  to  render  it  both  useful  and 
attractive,  not  onlvto  the  officers  and  students 
of  the  College,  but  to  her  alumni  also.  The 
committee  wish,  especially,  that  these  should 
enjoy  the  freest  access  to  the  library,  and  be 
induced  to  resort  thither  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
ference and  consultation,  whenever  it  is  open, 
and  that  it  shall,  if  possible,  be  kept  so,  daily, 
during  term  time,  for  several  hours.  To  fol- 
low out  these  views,  however,  are  required 
funds,  which  the  College,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
is  not  at  present  in  a  condition  to  supply. 
The  services  of  a  suitable  librarian  must  be 
secured  by  payment  of  an  adequate  salary. 
Many  great  deficiencies  in  the  library  need  to 
be  supplied,  and  permanent  arrangements  and 
provision  must  be  made  for  keeping  it  in  some 
measure  on  a  level  with  the  age  as  regards 
science,  literature,  and  art.     The  object  which 


34 

the  committee  have  especially  at  heart,  is  to 
make  the  library  a  valuable  one  for  reference — 
to  collect  within  it  books  of  a  class  superior 
to  those  which  are  commonly  in  demand  for  cir- 
culation ;  and,  therefore,  less  likely  to  be  found 
in  other  libraries  of  our  city. 

I  know  not  what  inducement  I  can  offer 
to  the  ladies,  who  have  honored  this  occasion 
with  their  presence,  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
cause  which  1  am  pleading,  except  that  it  is  a 
good  one,  and  that  it  stands  in  need  of  all  the 
aid  which  their  gentle  but  powerful  influence 
could  so  effectually  give.  They  have  no  per- 
sonal concern  in  this  matter,  nor  is  the  subject 
one  which,  as  treated  by  me,  is  very  likely  to 
engage  their  sympathy  or  satisfy  their  taste ; 
but,  if  convinced  of  its  importance  to  those  of 
the  other  sex,  in  whose  welfare  they  are  in- 
terested, they  will  not  look  upon  it  with  indif- 
ference. And  certainly,  they  cannot  but  be 
glad  to  see  multiplied,  in  a  city  where  there 
are  so  many  of  a  different  sort,  attractive, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  improving  places  of 
resort  for  their  fathers,  their  husbands,  their 
brothers,  and  their  sons. 


35 

As  for  you,  my  fellow  alumni,  I  will  not 
conceal  the  hope  in  which  I  have  invited  jour 
attention  to  this  subject — the  hope  that  you 
may  be  persuaded  to  look  on  it  as  one  in 
which  the  honor  and  welfare  of  your  College, 
your  city,  and  your  country  at  large  are  so 
much  concerned,  that  you  cannot  well  refuse 
to  take  an  interest  in  it.  I  have  even  flattered 
myself  that  some  one  among  you,  rendered 
sensible  of  its  importance,  and  possessing  the 
means,  may  be  led  to  feel  the  inclination  also, 
while  conferring  on  science  and  letters  a  great 
and  lasting  benefit,  to  secure  for  himself,  in 
the  manner  that  has  been  suggested,  an  hon- 
orable name  through  all  after  time.  There 
are,  1  feel  assured,  some  of  you,  my  hearers, 
who  could  without  any  painful  sacrifice — who 
might  even  from  your  superfluity  do  this — 
who  lack  nothing  needful  for  the  attaining  of 
this  highly  important  end,  unless  it  be  perhaps 
the  inclination,  and  I  will  not  despair  of  find- 
ing among  you,  or  of  awakening  even  that, 
I  cherish  a  sort  of  hope  that  some  one  of  those 
who    now    hear    me    will   yet  thank  me    for 


36 

having  suggested  an  occasion  of  associating 
with  so  beneficial  and  so  noble  a  work  as 
that  proposed,  his  then  certainly  enduring 
name. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


I 


